My new bareback pad, from The Bony Pony tack shop in WA arrived yesterday. I tried it out on Tinni, first going for a ride. It fit him and me perfectly. Then I put it on Tyra, along with a TTeam body wrap. This was my way of telling her that we were going to work. I got my big fat tire(d)! bicycle out and we went for a jaunt. After, we had the following conversation, with the others adding their two cents.

Alys: Tyra, you did very well today, I was very impressed.
Tyra: Yes, yes I did.
A: But at times you seemed a little distracted.
Tyra: Yes, yes I was.

Bill Fuller came back as a raven

A: What’s up?
Raudi: I can tell you.
Tyra: Go ahead and tell her, Raudi.
R: Tyra is now a pagan.
A: Wait a minute Tyra. I thought you had committed your heart and soul to Jesus.
Tinni: That was yesterday.
Hrimmi: Today she changed her life path.
R: A good thing because extreme religiosity has been equated with schizophrenia.
A: How do you all know all this?
R: We’ve been talking with Bill.
A: Bill who?
Tyra: Bill the Raven.
R: You know Bill; he was your good friend. He came here and played the harmonica for Tinni, Siggi, and me. Then he died.
T: And came back as a Raven.
A: And?
R: And he comes by every so often, sits in the tree and talks with us.
A: About?
H: Lots of things.
R: Other birds also talk to us. But Bill has taken a special interest in our well-being.
Tinni: And so, he had a long talk with Tyra after a big honker moose attempted to convince her that Jesus was her savior. Tyra is very child-like and naive.
Tyra: Am not.
Tinni: Are so.
Tyra: Am not.
Alys: Enough.
Raudi: And so Bill told Tyra about Paganism, and that there is a God for just about everything.
Tyra: That’s right. There’s a God of Light, a God of Darkness, a God of Wind, a God of Gods, even.
A: And you believe this?
Tyra: Makes sense to me.
Hrimmi: The more Gods the better.
R: I don’t believe any of this.
Tinni: I much prefer to dwell on the Icelandic sagas.
R: Now you’re talking.
Tinni: Alys, sometime will you read them to me?
A: Most certainly.
T: I would like to go back to the land where I was born.
A: I would send you back there but Icelandic law prevents horses from being brought back into the country.
R: You could smuggle him in.
A: Right, in my suitcase.
R: No, put him on a boat and pull up to a harbor late at night.
T: A good idea, but I don’t like dark water.
Tyra: Ahem.
A: Yes?
Tyra: So many Gods, so little time.
Hrimmi: What?
Tyra: To learn about them.
Tinni: How about in your spare time?
Tyra: I don’t have much spare time. I am a young horse in training. Today I trotted a long ways next to Alys and her bicycle. And tomorrow we might go further.
A: Yes.
R: Is good, keeps her mind off this religious nonsense.
Tinni: Truth is stranger than fiction.
A: Where did you get that line?
Tinni: Bill.
A: Well, it very well may be.
R: Well, just as long as the Hay Gods keep smiling down on us, we’re all okay.
Tyra: Amen sister.
A: (Exiting the gate) I have had enough for now.
Tyra: When you come back, we’ll have more for you.
A: I can hardly wait.

Next: 18. 1/18/18: The Horse Life: Homeschooling and Local Fame